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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Reader's Diary #1732- Kohei Horikoshi: My Hero Academia

I've been enjoying a few tweaks on Marvel's X-Men scenario lately; In Black Kwanza Osajyefo gave mutant-like abilities only to black people, while in Kohei Horikoshi's My Hero Academia the script is flipped by assigning mutant-like abilities to the majority of the population, rather than just a select few. It's fascinating to see such re-interpretations and how the writers imagine their ramifications.

I was disappointed, however, to find that Horikoshi seems to abandon the idea too early into the manga series. The story revolves around a young teenage boy named Izuku Midoriya, one of the 20% of the population born without super abilities. This is almost a catastrophe for Izuku as he wants nothing more than to get accepted into an elite superhero training school and become a superhero. His journey of overcoming such obstacles should make for an exciting tale of ingenuity and perseverance. However, when "real-life" superhero All-Might notices Izuku's bravery and determination, All-Might reveals that one of his superpowers is to pass his powers to someone else and as Izuku proves himself worthy, All-Might gifts him with these powers. There's still a chance that All-Might is just playing Izuku in order to give him drive and self-confidence, but it's looking more and more that Horikoshi has simply gone a different, easier route. I'll have to read further volumes to find out for sure.

Which wouldn't be the end of the world; the story is fast-paced, entertaining, and sometimes funny. The art is typical manga-style.